General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Do you support laws against Holocaust denial? [View all]KingCharlemagne
(7,908 posts)is just like money; some have a lot more of it then others. Free speech in the abstract DOES NOT EXIST.
To put this into concrete terms, imagine that the Koch Brothers were to decide to throw their money and power behind media outlets propagating Holocaust Denial. I wager there would be a hell of a lot less equanimity here about allowing Holocaust Denial free reign were such to occur. Some speech is so offensive to the decent opinions of mankind that I think it should be suppressed. Holocaust denial is one example; another might be the virulent white supremacist notion that black men want to rape white women. Or that women secretly desire to be raped. Yeah, you're free to have those opinions but you should not be free to publish those opinions in print or over the airwaves.
FWIW, I think Germany and the UK may also have some version of laws prohibiting Holocaust Denial. There was a British "historian" (and Holocaust Denier) named David Irving who was convicted of it in 2006 and sentenced to a 3-year term (although he may have been convicted under EU jurisdiction and not UK proper). Irving also lost a libel case he brought against an American historian who accused him of Holocaust denialism. IOW, she had not libelled Irving because truth -- that Irving is a Holocaust Denier -- is an absolute defense against accusations of libel.